Vietnamese people bring vermicelli with fermented shrimp paste to New York

Cuisine Dining Places

Thursday, April 27, 2023 14:20 (GMT+7)
14:20 4/27/2023

Appearing on the streets of New York (USA), the dish of vermicelli with fermented shrimp paste and the plastic tables and chairs with a strong Vietnamese feel has attracted many food lovers.

Vietnamese vermicelli with fermented shrimp paste has been a bestseller in New York in recent days. Photo: Nico Schinco/The New York Times .

In Vietnam, Bun Dau Mam Tom is a popular dish that can be found anywhere on the streets. Ingredients include fried tofu, vermicelli, cucumber and some herbs. Sometimes it is added with green rice sausage, pork sausage… and dipped in shrimp paste.

Shrimp paste has a "strong" smell and is not easy for foreigners to eat. Even some Vietnamese people cannot eat it. However, vermicelli with shrimp paste is a "rare thing" in New York, so the couple Jerald Head and Nhung Dao decided to open the restaurant Mam NYC in southeast Manhattan in September 2020.

The restaurant is only open 3 days a week. Friday from 5pm to 8:30pm and Saturday and Sunday from 12pm to 4pm. Each serving of vermicelli with fermented shrimp paste is sold for 32 USD (equivalent to 800,000 VND).

Recently, when the restaurant has been open more regularly, it has welcomed many diners from all over. On busy days, diners spill out onto the sidewalk, forcing the restaurant owner to personally bring the dishes to the tables.

Sidewalk vermicelli with shrimp paste in America

In 2019, Jerald Head also worked as a chef at Di An Di restaurant (Brooklyn, New York, USA). Here, he began to try to prepare vermicelli with fermented shrimp paste in Vietnamese style under the advice of his wife. After discussion, the two opened a restaurant specializing in Vietnamese dishes called Mam NYC, with Jerald Head as the main chef. In addition to vermicelli with fermented shrimp paste, the restaurant also has other dishes such as vermicelli with mussels, fried duck with garlic, congee with offal, etc.

Jerald Head said the reason for making bun dau mam tom the main dish on the menu is because both husband and wife love it. "In New York, you can't find a restaurant that sells bun dau mam tom. Diners will be excited to enjoy this new dish. We know they will love bun dau mam tom like we do," the restaurant owner said.

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On busy days, Jerald Head also serves as a waiter. Photo: Nico Schinco/The New York Times.

Wanting diners to enjoy authentic Vietnamese food from appearance to taste, Jerald and Nhung presented the food on a bamboo tray, lined with banana leaves. All ingredients such as tofu, green rice sausage, pork sausage... were prepared by the couple.

"We make tofu with a 60kg machine imported from Vietnam. First, we grind the soybeans into milk. Then we cook them and press them into tofu pieces. For the green rice patties, we mix fresh green rice bought in Hanoi during our trip to Vietnam in 2022 into the minced pork and fry them in a pan of hot oil," the owner shared.

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A tray of vermicelli and tofu costs 32 USD , equivalent to 800,000 VND. Photo: @mam.nyc.

The sausage was prepared according to the special recipe of Jerald Head’s father-in-law (Nhung’s father). He and his wife bought pig intestines, pig blood, pig fat, etc., washed them, stuffed the ingredients into the pig intestines, boiled them, and cut them into small pieces. They also brought shrimp paste from Thanh Hoa, mixed with sugar, lime juice, and Thai chili.

In addition, fresh herbs such as fish mint, perilla, basil... served with the vermicelli and tofu tray are bought from a vegetable vendor on a truck on Grand Street.

Customers sit on the sidewalk on weekends

The restaurant space is not too large but gives a cozy feeling. On nice days, diners can sit on low blue plastic chairs, brought from Vietnam to enjoy vermicelli with shrimp paste, creating the feeling of sitting in Vietnam. This is also the reason why Mam NYC attracts many diners.

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The restaurant's interior is not too spacious but elegant and cozy. Photo: Nico Schinco/The New York Times.

Since February, the restaurant’s reputation has begun to spread. Diner Hayden Phung, a Vietnamese living and working in Philadelphia, said the vermicelli with fermented shrimp paste at Mam NYC is better than the one she ate at in Hanoi.

"The shrimp paste at the restaurant is mixed in the Hang Khay style in Hanoi, when you use chopsticks to beat it, it foams a lot. The green rice sausage is made from fried raw sausage, so it's quite fragrant. My favorite is the pork sausage in the vermicelli and bean curd tray, it tastes very good and the sausage looks high quality. For me, this dish is worth the money," commented Hayden Phung.

This Vietnamese diner also believes that the class of the dish lies in the effort put into preparing each ingredient. When eating, she feels the chef’s dedication and satisfies her longing for the taste of vermicelli with fermented shrimp paste in her hometown.

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Tables and chairs imported from Vietnam. Photo: Hayden Phung, @mam.nyc.

Sharing the same opinion with Hayden Phung, Nguyen Uyen (living in New York) shared: "I am very happy because now I can eat Vietnamese vermicelli with fermented shrimp paste on any weekend. All the ingredients are delicious, especially the fried tofu. I ate here in 2020, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the restaurant has only recently been operating regularly again. The pork sausage tastes much better than before."

Not only Vietnamese people living in the US, many Western guests also come to Mam NYC when they hear that the restaurant has a typical Vietnamese dish called bun dau mam tom.

According to Tyler, a New York diner, the Vietnamese food at Mam NYC is the best of any Vietnamese restaurant he has eaten at in New York. The fermented shrimp paste served alongside it is also top-notch. The vermicelli and bean curd platter has a variety of greens, while other places only put mint and basil. Tyler’s favorite dishes are the sausage and pork intestines. He hopes the restaurant will become more well-known.

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The menu at Mam NYC is bilingual, and the waiters wear Vietnamese ao ba ba. Photo: Tyler.

"I saw the restaurant on social media and came to try it. The seating inside is clean, and there are many plastic chairs outside that remind me of Vietnam. The flavor of the vermicelli with fermented shrimp paste is nothing to complain about, the fried tofu is crispy but the portion is a bit small compared to the price," diner Annie, who lives in Brooklyn, commented.

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For foreigners, Vietnamese shrimp paste is difficult to eat because of its strong smell, but when it touches the tip of the tongue, mixed with crispy tofu or crunchy pork sausage, the special flavor of shrimp paste gradually spreads in the mouth. It can be said that vermicelli with shrimp paste is gradually conquering the taste buds of diners.

Mam NYC's name is starting to spread everywhere. Recently, the restaurant was honored to be ranked 26th in the top 100 best restaurants in New York City by The New York Times .

An article with "winged" praise also appeared in The New York Times with the title "Mam Serves the Most Exciting Vietnamese Food in New York".

"Shrimp paste has a dark purple color and a distinctive smell that hits you right in the nose. Imagine taking a fish off a pizza and drying it in the hot sun, that's what shrimp paste smells like. Not simply fermented shrimp paste in a jar, chef Jerald Head also stirs in sliced red pepper and a few drops of fresh lemon, creating a dipping sauce that smells bad but tastes delicious," wrote author Pete Wells.

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Tofu, green rice sausage... are all prepared by Jerald and Nhung. Photo: @mam.nyc.

Pete Wells got to see and taste freshly fried tofu. He described the tofu as having a crispy outer layer and a mozzarella-like interior, better than any other tofu he had ever eaten. His favorite dish on the vermicelli and bean curd platter was the sausage.

In addition, the writer of The New York Times newspaper was also excited to see the restaurant placing Vietnamese plastic tables and chairs on the sidewalk. "Diners often sit on the sidewalk or along the brick wall of the playground, surrounded by pedestrians, dogs and vehicles. It feels like having lunch in Hanoi," the author said.

The restaurant owner confided: "Some diners cannot eat bun dau mam tom, but they still try and appreciate Vietnamese cuisine. The restaurant is very lucky that author Pete Wells understands the Vietnamese street food experience that we want to bring. The kitchen is quite small, with only a few cooking utensils and a frying pan. What we focus on is the quality of each dish."

For Jerald Head and Nhung Dao, the warm reception of Bun Dau Mam Tom and the Vietnamese street food culture from international friends makes them proud. In the future, the two will open more branches and introduce more Vietnamese dishes.

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